Call for Applications: Writers to Join Awaaz Initiative: "Celebrating International Mother Language Week"

The Awaaz Initiative seeks to exponentially increase the discourse around socio-legal issues in regional languages.

Awaaz is a platform for regional writers, editors, and readers to collaborate and share their stories, ideas, and experiences in their own language. It aims to bring these communities together as a collective. The community will be hosted on Youth Ki Awaaz and supported by an expanding network of partner organisations, including Bar and Bench.

On the occasion of International Mother Language Day, celebrated annually on February 21, the Awaaz Initiative is organizing a week-long celebration from 20 February to 26 February.

During this week, it aims to publish a series of blogs in 12 Regional languages spoken across India, including Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Kannada, Odia, Assamese, Marathi, and Gujarati.

The goal of Awaaz is to provide a platform for individuals across India to express themselves on issues that matter to them in a language they feel close to and comfortable with. This will help to increase discourse around social, political, and legal issues in regional languages and bring more stories and opinions to light.

The platform calls for support by joining them on the mission to democratise knowledge and create platforms of expression regardless of linguistic background.

What can you do to support Awaaz? 

• Circulate the google form here among your student community who would be interested in writing in any of the 12 languages.

• If you are part of a journal in a law university, you can celebrate International Mother Language Week by opening applications for writing in any of these languages and potentially publishing a separate edition in regional languages for your journal/blog.

• If you are a post-holder in the university, you can conduct events in regional languages, such as debate competitions, essay writing, lectures, and open discussions for committees, student groups or research centres.

• If you are a college professor, you can encourage students to write in regional languages and provide guidance and assistance.

• If you are a law student, you can write and contribute to the Awaaz community in your own language.

What can the platform provide?

• Your university/organization name will be featured on Youth Ki Awaaz with a viewership of 4 million users per month as a participating entity. 

• If you plan to host any of the pieces from our platform, we will happily republish the pieces along with the original link on your platform.

• Your logo will be included in the citation compendium prepared in 12 languages based on your support. You can also post this on your platform.

• You will receive recognition for your participation in the week from our partner organizations. The platform is committed to supporting you in any way we can to celebrate this important week.